Appearance and Character

Renly is a handsome and charismatic man, winning friends easily, but he also strikes some people as frivolous.[4] Renly enjoys tournaments and hunting but is not driven by the passion for food, drink, or wenching, as Robert I Baratheon came to be. He is quite popular with the smallfolk due to his good looks, friendly ways and charisma.[5]

Renly is twenty-one years old, a tall man with black hair falling to his shoulders.[6] He is thought to look eerily similar to a young Robert, though several inches shorter, and far less muscular. In A Game of Thrones he is said to wear green to match his eyes,[6] but in A Clash of Kings he is described as having blue eyes like Robert.[4] His suit of enameled green armor with a helm adorned with a pair of golden antlers[4] was made by Tobho Mott.[7] Renly keeps his body trim and his thick, jet-black hair long but always neatly combed. He prefers to be clean-shaven.[8]

Unbeknownst to the realm at large, and despite the many women who are attracted to him, Renly is homosexual.[9][10] According to his lover, Ser Loras Tyrell, Renly disdains book learning, believing that books should only be read by maesters. Despite this, he owns books with "drawings that would turn a septon blind", implying some kind of pornography.[11]

As a boy, Renly loved bright colors and fabrics. He loved games as well, and would run laughing through the halls of Storm's End.[14]

By his older brother Robert, Renly was eventually granted the seat of Storm's End and named Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, upsetting Stannis, who felt that, as the elder of the two, Storm's End was his by right.[14]

When Renly turned sixteen, he made a lord's progress across the stormlands to mark his coming of age. During this progress, he also visited the isle of Tarth, where Renly courteously danced with Brienne of Tarth.[15]

Princess Arianne Martell recalls that Renly also visited Sunspear once. She had tried her best to seduce Renly, but remembers that he had seemed more bemused than inflamed by her attempts.[16]

During his time as Lord of Storm's End, Renly took Loras Tyrell as his page and squire.[17] This was likely the start of their clandestine love affair. Although not widely known, their forbidden relationship is known to various others at court.[9][10]

While Robert lies dying after being wounded in the kingswood, Renly approaches Eddard and suggests they seize control of the royal children before Queen Cersei Lannister can strike. Eddard refuses the offer, and Renly flees King's Landing along with Loras.

Renly's plan goes awry, however, when Stannis unexpectedly besieges Storm's End, forcing Renly to respond.[4] Catelyn convinces the brothers to parley outside Storm's End, but Renly makes light of the situation, refusing to back down from his claim and advising his older brother to give up and eat a peach. Renly also denies Catelyn leave to return to Riverrun, so she may witness the fate of "rebels".[24] While preparing for battle with Stannis's forces the next dawn, however, Renly is slain by an animated shadow conjured by his brother's sorceress adviser, Melisandre.[13] Ser Cortnay Penrose, the castellan of Storm's End, disbelieves that Renly has died, but his body goes missing before it can be presented as proof.[26]

A Storm of Swords

Following King Joffrey I Baratheon's wedding to Margaery, Hamish the Harper performs "Lord Renly's Ride" during the wedding feast. Hamish sings of Renly's ghost repenting from his attempt to usurp his nephew, returning to this world to defend the realm from Stannis and then returning to Highgarden to see his true love's face one last time, which brings tears to Margaery's eyes.[29]

Ser Loras tells Ser Jaime Lannister that he buried Renly in a place they knew from when he was a squire at Storm's End, where no one else could ever find and disturb his remains.[28]

A Feast for Crows

Sexuality

Although this is never explicitly stated, there are a number of oblique references that imply those who are close to him are aware of Renly's orientation and, more, that he and Loras Tyrell are involved. When Stannis and Renly are trading barbs in anticipation of battle at Storm's End, Stannis calls Renly's wedding to Margaery Tyrell a "mummer's farce" and in response to Renly's comment, "You'll be pleased to know she came to me a maid," Stannis replies, "In your bed she's like to die that way."[24]

When Jaime stops Loras from confronting Brienne, he threatens Loras: "Now sheathe your bloody sword, or I'll take it from you and shove it up some place even Renly never found."[31]

While contemplating Margaery's maidenhood, Cersei reflects on Margaery's marriage to Renly: "A man may prefer the taste of hippocras, yet if you set a tankard of ale before him, he will quaff it quick enough;"[32] the implication being that although Renly prefers the company of men, he may nonetheless have bedded Margaery because she was available.

Stannis: That you shall never have.Renly: You served Robert, why not me?Stannis: Robert was my elder brother. You are the younger.Renly: Younger, bolder, and far more comely ...Stannis: ... and a thief and a usurper besides.Renly: The Targaryens called Robert usurper. He seemed to be able to bear the shame. So shall I.[24]

Renly:Tyrell swords will make me king. Rowan and Tarly and Caron will make me king, with axe and mace and warhammer. Tarth arrows and Penrose lances, Fossoway, Cuy, Mullendore, Estermont, Selmy, Hightower, Oakheart, Crane, Caswell, Blackbar, Morrigen, Beesbury, Shermer, Dunn, Footly . . . even House Florent, your own wife's brothers and uncles, they will make me king. All the chivalry of the south rides with me, and that is the least part of my power. My foot is coming behind, a hundred thousand swords and spears and pikes. And you will destroy me? With what, pray? That paltry rabble I see there huddled under the castle walls? I'll call them five thousand and be generous, codfish lords and onion knights and sellswords. Half of them are like to come over to me before the battle starts. You have fewer than four hundred horse, my scouts tell me-freeriders in boiled leather who will not stand an instant against armored lances. I do not care how seasoned a warrior you think you are, Stannis, that host of yours won't survive the first charge of my vanguard.[24]

Quotes about Renly

“

The bold little boy with wild black hair and laughing eyes was a man grown now, one-and-twenty, and still he played his games. "Look at me, I'm a king," Cressen thought sadly. Oh, Renly, Renly, dear sweet child, do you know what you are doing? And would you care if you did? is there anyone who cares for him but me?[14]

What has Renly ever done to earn a throne? He sits in council and jests with Littlefinger, and at tourneys he dons his splendid suit of armor and allows himself to be knocked off his horse by a better man. That is the sum of my brother Renly, who thinks he ought to be king.[14]

The youngest of Lord Steffon's three sons had grown into a man bold but heedless, who acted from impulse rather than calculation. In that, as in so much else, Renly was like his brother Robert, and utterly unlike Stannis. [14]

Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day.[35]

I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.[28]